People have become accustomed to using phones for making voice and data calls and generally expect to be able to make telephone calls virtually everywhere. Wireless phones and other wireless devices have enabled people to make phone calls while on the go. Even though wireless networks cover all major urban and rural areas, there are certain areas where wireless communication devices are not permitted to be used, such as in hospitals, certain areas of airports, certain restaurants, entertainment areas, art centres, certain controlled environments (ex. correctional facilities and the like) and certain highly secured facilities (such as data centres and the like). In these circumstances, people still rely on wireline-based communication systems.
Furthermore, there is a plethora of circumstances when an organization desires to control outbound calls made from its premises. For example, corporations usually restrict long distance and overseas calling from phones located in common areas of the office, such as a reception, floor access phones, cafeteria phones, loading docks and the like. Other corporations restrict overseas calling from employees' desk phones and allow overseas calling after entering a PIN code as a measure to combat unauthorized expenses.
Additional problems arise with controlling outbound calling from controlled institutions, such as correctional institutions, military bases and the like. In the example of correctional institutions, the telephone system must meet certain requirements. The phone hardware itself must be more robust than standard pay phones and must be able to withstand not only weather hazards such as the case with outside payphones, but also potential physical abuse and tampering.
Furthermore, correctional institutions usually impose certain restrictions on the type of calls that can be placed by inmates. For example, inmates can only be allowed to make calls to a certain list of numbers, which has to be pre-approved. This is done in order to avoid harassing and unwanted calls from inmates to ex-victims or other targeted groups. Typically, each inmate has a list of allowed telephone numbers to which he or she is allowed to place outbound calls. Such lists include lawyer's numbers, government organizations, various help lines, religious organizations and approved relatives' telephone numbers. As a result, it is important to positively identify each inmate before allowing him or her to place an outbound telephone call.
One solution to identify callers is available from QuorTech Solutions Inc. of 110-7777 P10th Street NE, Calgary, Alberta Canada. The pay phones used in the Millennium Inmate Systems establish a connection with a server via the Public Switched Telephone Network, identify the caller using a PIN entered using the pay phone keypad and verify that the inmate identified with the PIN is authorized to call the particular dialled number. The Millennium Inmate System establishes a collect call to the authorized destination number. Several limitations are associated with the Millennium Inmate System. For example, inmates are only able to make outbound collect calls and are not allowed to make direct outbound calls to the authorized numbers since there is no option to perform a billing function. Furthermore, no further authentication of inmates' identity is provided for and inmates can easily share PINs in order to obtain access to other inmate's allowed call lists.